Suffolk leaders still working on nursing home deal

By: Michael H. Samuels October 14, 2008Comments Off on Suffolk leaders still working on nursing home deal

A possible deal between Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and Presiding Officer Bill Lindsay to keep the John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility open is on shaky ground.

Levy said Tuesday afternoon that the two sides are still negotiating a bill that would allow the executive to ask for bids to sell or close the nursing home while at the same time hiring new management to run 264-bed Yaphank facility.

“I’m not giving up hope,” Levy said. “It all depends on the language.”

But the deal appears to be on thin ice after a joint press conference Tuesday afternoon with Levy and Lindsay was cancelled just minutes before announcing the deal.

Levy said the issue is finding money in the county budget to pay the nursing home’s 250 workers.

Levy’s proposed 2009 budget includes $10 million to $15 million in savings from closing the nursing home, which allows him to not raise taxes next year.

He said the Legislature needs to find a way to offset paying the workers and not increase the budget to keep the tax freeze in place.

“They have to find real money to make that happen,” Levy said. “They can’t just say they are putting it back in the budget. They have to find millions of dollars and I want to see where they are going to find it.”

If the deal does not go through, the nursing home’s closure would start Jan. 1 and gradually take place throughout 2009, Levy said.

“It is pure bologna to say there will be people out on the street,” Levy said. “The state will not let us close it down without having beds for all these people.”